Greater Manchester Tenders

[Nwales Bus]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders

(10/03/2022 17:19)SF07 Wrote:  Some more proposed changes to services next month (24 April):

• 502/503 (Vision Bus): Withdrawn. Partially covered by services 125 and 501.
• 571/572 (Vision Bus): Daytime journeys withdrawn. Vision Bus to continue to run Sunday evening journeys, while Diamond continue to run Monday-Saturday daytime service. TfGM to provide a replacement Sunday daytime service.
• 580/581 (Vision Bus): Withdrawn. Partially covered by services 20, 501, 521 and 582.
  

https://democracy.greatermanchester-ca.g...rt%20A.pdf

Shame to see the Bolton services be cancelled by Vision. Pre covid the 502/503 preformed well, however the services have died a death in the last couple of month with many missing diagrams

[Mrboo]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders

(11/03/2022 00:32)Nwales Bus Wrote:  Shame to see the Bolton services be cancelled by Vision. Pre covid the 502/503 preformed well, however the services have died a death in the last couple of month with many missing diagrams

iMaybe if they ran the service at the time on the bus stops people may use it. Google and bus stops times was wrong with services running to not same timetable.

[KXW212]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders
Some further info on Go Goodwins/Little Gem services, although not complete.

https://www.littlegem.info/services/

[Metroline1511]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders
From what I have seen @SF07 route 41 is already mainly every 20 minutes with 2/3 of buses continuing beyond NMGH to Middleton.

The list of changes from your link @KXW212 gives Little Gem their first routes in central Manchester as far as I know, routes 44 & 217. I am now pleased to have done a Selwyns 44 while I could.

I wonder what is happening to routes 171/72 and evening 247 journeys. The 171/72 were rumoured earlier in the year to be returning to Stagecoach.

[knutstransport]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders
The interesting thing about Little Gem getting new contracts is it means they need to retain vehicles or get replacements. I know someone said last year that they got some vehicles with Euro V engines because they only planned to use them as a short term measure until the coach work picked up again.

Also be interesting to see if the 391/392 goes back to the full weekday timetable, rather than the 'driver shortage' emergency timetable.

[Mayneway]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders

(12/03/2022 10:48)knutstransport Wrote:  The interesting thing about Little Gem getting new contracts is it means they need to retain vehicles or get replacements. I know someone said last year that they got some vehicles with Euro V engines because they only planned to use them as a short term measure until the coach work picked up again.

Also be interesting to see if the 391/392 goes back to the full weekday timetable, rather than the 'driver shortage' emergency timetable.

From what I’ve heard they are still struggling to find and keep drivers which makes these tender gains strange. Several of my colleagues went and only lasted weeks there. Combination of monthly pay, cleaning your own vehicle and temporary contracts, coupled with long working days isn’t very inviting.

The 217 has been decimated by TFGM and Diamond. I drove it regularly at MCT and it was a busy service. The combination of route change and using the Mellor bread vans means it’s always running empty. Such a shame.

[Mayneway]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders

(11/03/2022 01:27)Mrboo Wrote:  iMaybe if they ran the service at the time on the bus stops people may use it. Google and bus stops times was wrong with services running to not same timetable.

Problem is the timetables at bus stops are not down to vision. TFGM are very slow to update bus stop information now it takes weeks for them to update them after changes.

[knutstransport]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders

(12/03/2022 11:35)Mayneway Wrote:  Problem is the timetables at bus stops are not down to vision. TFGM are very slow to update bus stop information now it takes weeks for them to update them after changes.

This isn't exclusive to Greater Manchester unfortunately. When I went to Bristol and Somerset last September not only where there out-of-date timetables on display, the next service LED displays were still showing the old timetable.

[Mayneway]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders

(12/03/2022 11:42)knutstransport Wrote:  This isn't exclusive to Greater Manchester unfortunately. When I went to Bristol and Somerset last September not only where there out-of-date timetables on display, the next service LED displays were still showing the old timetable.

TFGM used to be quite good but since covid it’s just got worse and worse. They seem to have this attitude that everyone has access to the internet and nobody uses the bus stop information, that’s fine but when even the bus stop flag is incorrect with what services stop there and don’t it’s just confusing people.

[Mrboo]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders

(12/03/2022 11:35)Mayneway Wrote:  Problem is the timetables at bus stops are not down to vision. TFGM are very slow to update bus stop information now it takes weeks for them to update them after changes.

The Stops have been updated many times for the 125 and also google has wrong info on the planner so the data that been uploaded was wrong buses was racking up 20mins late or 10mins early depend how you look at it. I don't use that route much now but due to the 125 it was never missed unless that route was having a bad day for timekeeping.

The issue was even internet was wrong for the service may of been sorted but it was like this for months last year. the route that is missing is a bus from Duff Locker to Astley Bridge would of offered more if was routed over copying 501 route.